At the next Annual General Meeting of thyssenkrupp AG on January 31, 2020 in Bochum, eight of the ten shareholder representatives on the Supervisory Board are due to stand for election. The term of office of Prof. Dr. Ursula Gather and Dr. Lothar Steinebach, the two Supervisory Board members delegated by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, ends in 2023. Three of the incumbent shareholder representatives are not standing for re-election: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Pellens, Carola von Schmettow and Jens Tischendorf. In their place, the Supervisory Board is proposing three new candidates to the Annual General Meeting: Birgit A. Behrendt, Dr. Bernhard Günther and Friederike Helfer.

Prof. Dr. Siegfried Russwurm, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of thyssenkrupp AG: “We are confident that we can fill the vacant seats on the Supervisory Board in an excellent way for the Company. Birgit Behrendt has built more than 30 years’ experience in large regional and global organizations. Dr. Bernhard Günther has prepared and been responsible for complex financial market transactions for a major group. Friederike Helfer has earned a reputation as an analytical, experienced industrials portfolio manager. In the Supervisory Board we will be able to use these wide-ranging capabilities to the benefit of thyssenkrupp. We look forward to working together.”

Birgit A. Behrendt (60) is an experienced industrial manager who trained as an apprentice at Ford Germany, gained a business degree, and rose to the role of Vice President, Joint Ventures and Alliances on the Executive Board of Ford Europe from 2017 to 2019. From 2013 Behrendt was a Corporate Officer of Ford Motor Company and for many years head of global purchasing including supplier quality management at the group’s headquarters in Dearborn, USA. She has been a member of the supervisory board of Kion AG, Frankfurt since 2015 and supervisory board member of Ford Werke GmbH and Ford Holding GmbH, Cologne since 2004 (with breaks).

Dr. Bernhard Günther (52) has been Chief Financial Officer of innogy SE, Essen since 2016. Most recently Günther was responsible among other things for the integration project relating to the merger with E.ON. As CFO at RWE from 2013 to 2016, Günther prepared the carve-out and IPO of innogy SE. Günther’s career at RWE began in 2001 in the controlling department, followed by various roles within RWE Trading & Supply. Previously he had gained a Ph.D. in economics and worked for several years for McKinsey as a management consultant for the auto sector, logistics and IT.

Friederike Helfer (43) is a partner of Cevian Capital. She is head of the investment company’s Swiss office. She has been with Cevian since 2008 and as a senior member of the pan-European investment team focuses particularly on industrial companies. Helfer is a non-executive member of the Board of Directors of Vesuvius plc, a global leader in molten metal flow engineering and technology. Before joining Cevian, Helfer was a consultant at McKinsey from 2004 to 2008. Helfer has two degrees, an M.Sc. in real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Dipl.-Ing. in urban planning from the Vienna University of Technology. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

The current shareholder representatives Prof. Dr. Siegfried Russwurm, Dr. Wolfgang Colberg, Dr. Ingrid Hengster and Angelika Gifford are standing for re-election at the Annual General Meeting. Martina Merz, Supervisory Board Chairwoman up to September 30, 2019 and currently delegated by the Supervisory Board to the Executive Board of thyssenkrupp AG for a maximum twelve-month period, is also to be re-elected to the Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting. Following her re-election, her Supervisory Board role will again be suspended until September 30, 2020 at the latest. Until Martina Merz returns to the Supervisory Board, Dr. Ingo Luge is again to be court-appointed to the Supervisory Board immediately after the Annual General Meeting. At the same time the Supervisory Board is proposing to the Annual General Meeting that Luge be elected as a substitute member in the event that a representative leaves the Supervisory Board before the end of his or her term of office in the future.

It is planned that on her return Martina Merz will again chair the Supervisory Board. It is to be proposed that until then the Supervisory Board elect Prof. Dr. Siegfried Russwurm as its chairman immediately after the Annual General Meeting.

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